It remained a well-kept secret for many years, that Altcar Army camp in Hightown housed a crucial part of Britain’s Cold War defences.

Hightown’s role in the conflict, when people in this country lived in fear of a nuclear missile attack from the Soviet Union, was never realised - until a surprising discovery was made three years ago.

The camp’s Commandant at the time, Major William Hunter, decided to investigate the whereabouts of a secretive anti-aircraft site thought to have been built in 1953 on the 620 acre rifle range.

Instead he discovered three mysterious bunkers.

“I have always been aware that there were bunkers of some sort,” said Major Hunter at the time.

“We had a unit here from the Royal Logistical Corps who had a bit of time on their hands and we were looking for a project so I decided to get them to help uncover what was there.

“We started clearing away th undergrowth and it shocked us to find that it was a radar site.”

The remote bunkers were part of the Orange Yeoman Tactical Control project which was designed to supply radar information directly to sixteen remote gun sites

which were controlled from a base at Newton, near Frodsham, Cheshire.

“They were there to protect and warn,” explained Major Hunter, a veteran of campaigns in Aden, Northern Ireland and Iraq.

“It was a radar system that would feed in the information about any aircraft or missiles that came across from Russia.

“It was a dangerous and perilous time when we had a major nuclear threat from the Soviets.”

It is thought up to 15 highly trained staff would have manned the bunkers with the largest even containing cooking facilities, but information about their identities and where they were from is a mystery due to the classified nature of the project.

“This was a very secretive site which is why we were so blissfully unaware of it,” said Major Hunter.

“Even in the history book of Altcar the building is only mentioned in passing as an anti-aircraft site and it doesn’t say what it was really for.

“They must have been very disciplined and dedicated soldiers because one of the first things I noticed was that there was no graffiti and soldiers always write graffiti no matter where they are!”

Opened in 1860,in response to the threat of invasion by the French, Altcar Training Camp and Rifle Range occupies a remote and wild stretch of the Sefton coast and Major Green believes the site still has many more secrets to reveal.

“You never know what we are going to find here at Altcar.

“Every year I think we will find something else when we are digging about.”

The War Office encouraged the formation of local artillery groups and one of these, the 5th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Gladstone, became the first to train at the range 152 years ago.

Since then thousands of military personnel, police and civilians have continued to visit the facility for marksmanship practice using a variety of ranges, the most modern of which use electronic targets.

“130,000 soldiers a year go through our site with two million rounds fired,” said Major Green.

“It is a very busy site for regular Territorial Army and cadets and will continue to be popular for many years to come.”